


Men Like Us

by adarkwintersday



Series: Hide Those Ears [6]
Category: Star Trek: The Original Series, Star Trek: The Original Series (Movies)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-25
Updated: 2016-08-25
Packaged: 2018-08-10 23:41:13
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 199
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7865998
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/adarkwintersday/pseuds/adarkwintersday
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They never make him feel like the third wheel.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Men Like Us

**Author's Note:**

> A day or two after the closing scene of The Final Frontier.

They never make him feel like the third wheel.

 

It’s curious, the doctor thinks.  Knowing, as he does, the strength of their mutual obsession.  He has been in Spock’s mind.  Saw Jim destroy the _Enterprise_.

 

He should feel more left out.

 

He has heard, too, Jim’s broken cries in the night.  Starship cabins are soundproofed, but there have been other times…  

 

Spock, thank the devil, is invariably silent.  

 

He should at least feel a little awkward.

 

Only he doesn’t.

 

Perhaps because he doesn’t relate to them as a _couple_.  His fractious relationship with Spock is no less intense that his friendship with Jim.  The two things are separate - are equally and independently important to him.

 

But it’s more than that.

 

 _Family_ , the doctor thinks. 

 

Not the kind he planned with Nancy once.  No - this is something else.  Is Jim, with his ridiculous idealism, and his fierce affection, and his flashes of incomparable brilliance.  Is Spock, with his infuriating tenaciousness, and his smug, beautiful, pointy-eared face, and his impossibly loyal heart.

 

What was it Spock said once?

 

_Emotionally satisfying, eminently practical, and totally harmless._

 

As the sun sets on Yosemite Valley the doctor smiles.

 

You get used to those things.


End file.
